Though there are a few decent pieces of information, it's all
lost as soon as they start encouraging cash-strapped consumers to
lie, cheat, and steal their way to a
debt-free lifestyle.

In one particular passage, Occupy hashes out several steps to
living credit-free. We ran them by credit expert John Ulzheimer,
President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com and blogger
for Mint.com.

And he found it all quite amusing.

Below, we list a few parts of Occupy's strategy, along with
Ulzheimer's reaction.

Occupy Wall Street: For housing utilities, if you
have a roommate, you can ask them to put the accounts in their
name. If you live alone, ask a relative or friend.

John Ulzheimer: And as far as turning your
family into lenders, family members don't want to lose money any
more than lenders want to lose money. They'll know after the
first "default" that you're not worthy of borrowing money. So
technically, you're still being assessed, just by family members.
Further, nothing tears a family apart faster than lending money
to other family members. Suggesting that people borrow
money from family members is step one toward family disharmony.

OWS: Opt for services that don’t require credit checks.
If a company requires a check, try to talk them out of it. Build
up an old-fashioned trusting relationship by spending
time talking with the person. They may choose to bypass
the credit check.

JU: The problem is that most lenders and service
providers pre-determine their underwriting standards so talking
to someone or building the trust of one person in a large bank is
meaningless because the decision to let you have the service has
already been made by someone else you'll never meet in a city
you'll never visit.

OWS: Create your own credit report: put together a
portfolio showing you are a trustworthy person (reference
letters, job history, life narrative).

JU: That's as worthless as the paper it's
written on. Lenders and service providers don't consider
self made credit reports because of the chances that they're not
honest...The only way to reject the system, other than
ceremonially, is to never, ever borrow money for any reason from
any company. Otherwise, you're in the system. You may not like
it, but you're in the system.

OWS: Build networks of mutual support in your community
so you rely less on outside services.

JU: I'm sorry but I'm laughing reading this.
There are over 100,000,000 people in this country (part of
the 99%) that have great credit and don't have any issues getting
loans or services at great rates and terms. Again, like their
letter to the CFPB, it appears that whomever is in charge of
OWS's "credit strategy" doesn't understand credit. And you can
quote me on that one.